*HP HDX DRAGON Owners Lounge, Part 1*

Well, wait for one of the experts here to really answer your processor questions, but, although I think the HDX18 is a very fine machine, I actually think the HDX has the better graphics card for gaming. Even my Toshiba's 8700M is better, I think.

Also, the HDX18's are being put on sale all over the place, right now, though maybe not with the Quad Core chip. So, I would shop around carefully before pulling the trigger. Market focus seems to be on the smaller laptops now (and especially the netbooks), so big screen laptops are being closed out, it appears. Even the HDX16 seems to be on sale a lot.

Good luck!

 

I'd like to add to that, yes, the 8800M GTS is twice as powerful as the 9600M GT. Go back a couple of pages and you'll see FPS benchmarks I posted on COD4 everything maxed out @ 1680 x 1050. Playing Red Alert 3, everything maxed out, 6 players, 1680x1050, I get 19min, 30 max FPS. Avg 24 FPS.

As for the Quad core, if you do a lot of multitasking, and encoding, it's the way to go. Otherwise the 2.8ghz dual is better.

 

Well, not quite.

Believe it or not, I have a friend who lives out in the country (like me) and can't get cable or fios, he only upgraded to Satellite internet service (it's expensive) a few months back.

I myself was still using a modem a couple of years ago (until we finally got cable inet).

But I do not miss it one bit!

Hmmm...wouldn't it be funny to program your laptop to play those hand-shaking tones every time you connected to the internet? <LOL>

 

Ya hoo! Them's mighty fine scores!

D*mn, these Dragon's are something. I simply cannot think of anything better on the market today, even now - at current prices. Everything about 'em just reeks of "special."

 

Thanks for the input. I should say HPs repairs were good at least one time I sent my 3GHZ single core desktop back to them. I paid over 300 for the repair and when I told them there was another minor problem they refunded my money back and left it at that. Still works fine.

 

Haha same here. I'm really looking forward to getting my 8GBs of memory in my HDX besides the 2x 500GB 7200.4 rpm Seagate hard drives I purchased that are supposed to ship in a week or two. Though if I can find a new x9000 with top specs (don't care about the memory or hard drives it comes with since I already bought the ones I want) I'd trade or sell this one for it.

 

Good points. I agree. Yea I'm planing on buying at least a 2-3 year warranty myself before the 1 year runs out myself.

 

Yea I believe he told me his were factory refurbished. Thats good to hear. You're the second person in here I see that gave props for the refurbished units.

 

Quick question.

I am using windows media player to play a movie on my tv via HDMI, but get no sound. How do I get media player to output sound via hdmi?

Thanks,
Scott

 

Right click on the little audio icon @ lower right hand corner of desktop and click on playback devices and select hdmi and enable it.

 

So what is better for what I want, the Quad Core 2 GHZ or a faster Dual Core Set up

 

The T9600 is going to perform better with most games and applications because of the higher clockspeed. If you can overclock, and pretty sure you can't with the hdx, then the faster cpu is the way to go.

 

Well, if you're not running a lot of programs simultaneously and don't do much video/audio encoding, then the faster dual core set up. Generally speaking, a faster dual core beats a slower quad core since most programs don't take advantage of multiple cores. As for video/audio encoding, we're only talking about shaving off seconds going the quad core route. Movie playback is mostly handled by the GPU. Games are GPU dependent with the exception of RTS and some newer FPS games which are both GPU can CPU dependent.

Quad core isn't really all that useful yet since the grand majority of programs are single threaded. If you run many single threaded apps at the same time, then you'll get 2 more cores able to run 2 more programs at full core speed. Trouble is, not many programs take up that much processing power. Web browsing, music, video, etc can all get by on one core. Just look at netbooks.

 

For the HDX, instead of HDMI, it's labeled "digital output device (SPDIF)." And you have to set it to default.

 

I guess it's the faster dual-core set up then. Thanks to all for your sage advice.

 

Thanks 2.0....Appreciate it. I was doing that, but it was not working....You have to re-start windows media player, then it takes effect.

On another note, I use the klite codec pack. I can play just about anything in that via windows media CLASSIC. It also seems like I can play just about anything in vista's windows media player also. I guess that once the codec's are on the system, all media players can use them.

Is that true?

Which leads me to the media center stuff. That does not seem to pick up all the klite codecs???

Any ideas there? Maybe they need to be copied to a special directory?

Thanks and regards,
Scott

 

Go to the HP site and download the Vista drivers. They work with Windows 7. You can get the TV, fingerprint, and other devices working. I've done it with Vista 64 Ultimate.

 

....guys i need some URGENT help. ive just flashed my hdx and not it wont boot. All lights come on but nothing on the screen. Please HELP!!!!

The flash was the 40E version which replaced my version 39.

 

It was told on that forum that flashing with 40E can brick your laptop

 

That happened to someone on this thread already. Pretty much exhuasted all means to try to get it back.

Only recourse is to send it back to HP.

 

just played F.E.A.R. 2 - Project Origin SP Demo, some stuttering, looks great tho.

 

Hi Guys,

It took me quite a while to find the lounge. I've had my HDX9250EA since the UK release date almost a year ago.

I've already searched the frankly huge thread for a solution to my problem, but I couldn't find one, so forgive me if it's already been answered and I missed it.

My problem is my graphics card. My HDX (nicknamed The Beast) has a nVidia GeForce 8800M GTS graphics card which plays most games with the originally installed driver from 13/12/07 (7.15.0011.6753). I can pretty much everything without any "artifacts", games such as Unreal Tournament 3, Left4Dead and Call of Duty World at War play fine, however Assassin's Creed and Fary Cry 2 show some triangular shaped "artifacts" coming from some of the non-static graphics. I also have a pretty bad overheating problem. The old driver lets the GPU temp get way too high. I have seen over 90 degrees in half an hour, but the newer drivers keep the temperature much lower. I used the machine in a warm enviroment recently and the GPU actualluy shut itself down on critical temp after only 20 mins! That's why I'm so keen to update the driver. The newer ones seem to run a lot cooler.
When I first ran Far Cry the game informed me that my graphics drivers were out of date and I should update them. I downloaded the latest HP/Compaq driver (179.32 24th Dec 2008) from laptopvideo2go and installed it with the modded inf. However, after I updated the driver to the latest version Unreal Tournament 3 and Left4Dead now have the "artifact" issue while Far Cry 2 is much worse!

I even took a screenshot from Left4Dead, which works fine with the old driver. Here it is with the latest driver........



Would these be called artifacts? Someone suggested on laptopvideo2go that they were "memory errors".

I don't understand how updating from a driver over a year old to the latest driver is making some games worse than before?

I'm sure I must be doing something glaringly wrong, as I see people with much poorer graphics cards than mine play these games without any "artifacts".

I even started a thread on laptopvideo2go for advice on what I should do. You can find it here, but I still haven't had any success updating my original driver, even after trying several drivers, including the modded desktop drivers and several of the notebook drivers. I also tried the latest Dox drivers and the last one I tried was the XFastest Forceware driver. All of them are worse than the original driver that came with the laptop which is over a year old!

I've even tried overlocking and most recently underlocking to fix the problem, with no joy. Although underclocking my GPU seems crazy when the original driver runs at full speed for hours, but like I said before tends to get very hot. I now use a small external fan by the rear vent to force more cool air past the card and it works a little better. Surely I shouldn't have to do this though?

My biggest concern now is that my card may have some manufacturing defects. My friend bought a Dragon as soon as he saw mine, with identical spec, but he does not have the same problem!

Any advice or help would be much appreciated.

Thanks in Advance.

CJ

 

Since I don't know if I did the NVIdia drivers correctly I think I may go with the Riva when I'm ready. Thanks.

 

My 8800M GTS never went over 62°C, even if I overclocked it, it only went to 70°C.
Even with the old drivers temperatures didn't get over 70°C without overclock.
Here are the drivers I use now: http://www.nvidia.com/object/notebook_drivers.html
Just choose your operating system and you're ready to go.
Grtz

 

Thanks for the reply maarten08 but that was the first place I tried. I still get artifcats all over the place that I don't get with the original driver.

CJ

 

Just out of curiosity, I just did a clean install (using driver sweeper and the have disk method) of 179.28 from the nVidia site but sure enough Unreal Tournament 3, Left4Dead and Far Cry 2 all have vectors/artifacts that they don't have with the original driver. I even stopped all the other non essential programs and services to give it the best shot, but no joy again.

Do I need to get in touch with HP about this? I'm starting to think the GPU may have some faults? I suspect that if I do they might just hit me with the old, "you should only use the officially supported HP driver from HP.com" routine. Any thoughts?

CJ

 

You could call them, it's what I would do.

 

Hey maarten08 which model HDX do you have and what high end games can you play smoothly? So when I phone them I can tell them that other people aren't having the same problems with overheating and drivers.

CJ

 

Here's a screenshot of ATITool in action. As you can see from the test time, the test had been running for less than 10 minutes and also had an extra cooling fan behind the vent to help, but the GPU still reached a dangerous 92 degrees. The test was run from cold......



CJ

 

Do you hear a GPU fan running during that test?

 

Yes, the fan is running. It starts off one speed then kicks up a speed after a while. I've just submitted a case to HP about it.

CJ

 

I've just run another test, and the GPU went from cold to 90 degrees in 6 minutes and 47 seconds using ATITool!
I think it's got to go back to HP.

CJ

 

That's a good idea. If mine cracks 65 I start to get concerned.

 

I have the HP HDX 9350EB, and can play Race Driver Grid at max settings, Crysis at med settings, CoD WaW at max settings
All 1680*1050 resolution

Grtz

 

Okay, as long as we're playing "who's the oldest?" - How many here have ever used a computer with a tickertape for a display interface, or every fixed something with Nixie tubes? Or better yet, how many here even know WHAT a Nixie tube IS (WITHOUT Googling it - we are NOT BDT's here....)

Here's another old memory - Back in the BBS days I was both a C'serve and Prodigy subscriber. How many here remember the day when Prodigy put a gun to its head and shot itself by starting to charge for BB's? I was one of the first in that mass exodus that left Prodigy in the dirt, never to recover. I still remember all the warning posts on the BB's telling them they were making a fatal mistake. A true lesson in Paradigm Paralysis and Uber mismanagement. Not only did they fail to listen to their customers, they screwed the only thing that made it a worthwhile service: their BB's. The point wasn't that C'serve and AOL by that time weren't charging for them, they were - the point was that unlike Prodigy, AOL and C'serve had a lot more to offer in content, so the extra cost was worth it. Prodigy's BB's were why it had the business numbers it did, and as long as they were free it wasn't a bad value for the money. But the mass exodus after the BBS fees fiasco was so quick the resulting vacuum nearly imploded the building. After that I remained with C'serve for another 10 years, starting my first website there and using it to get the startup capital for my web biz.

WHY am I here again????

 

Uh...I..remember the days when...I had to walk to school in my bare feet..in the snow....and hail? I at least remember Prodigy AOL "(of course) and Compuserve (if thats who youre talking about)...I get any points for that? I actually believe I remember talk about when that happened but was that around the time Apple 2 Es were big or was it later?


Why I am even attempting to comment on this half Chinese post????

 

Thanks for the reply, but I can also do that with the original HP driver from December 2007. I can aslo play Far Cry 2 on full settings with minimal errors or artifacts but my GPU temp still goes through the roof!
Can anyone confirm that they can play either Crysis or Far Cry 2 on an 8800m GTS with no overheating problems with any driver? (Or ATITool?)

CJ

 

Interesting location JF. Canada/SK. Personally I'm a UK/PRC.

CJ

 

Yes we used NIXI tubes for readout displays in industrial automation products (Industrial Nucleonics / Accuray). I always liked the way they glowed.

Compuserve was just down the street from where I worked back 1979, there headquarters.

I use 8080 because that was the first microprocessor I designed with in the mid 70's

 

If I installed the RivaTuner just to see what it looks like, and then immediately uninstalled it would that screw with the temperatures, fans or anything even if I never did any setting changes? I might be a tad paranoid, but It seems to be getting hotter than normal..and is faster than normal...I could be wrong, but I would rather keep it cool than hot if that comes along with overclocking..Also like an idiot I was placing my Glow in the Dark Keyboard stickers on the HDX while it was on..could I have possibly did something to shut the fans or or anything like that from just key commands possibly?

 

Ha ha, well, I think you win! I know what a Nixie tube is and I remember them, but never owned anything using them. They were cool, though. They'd be cool to have around now. And they had some old tickertape devices at college and I remember seeing old ones for sale, but I never used one. I wanted to, though. LOL! People were interfacing them to their Altair's and even their PET's. (My first PC was a PET 2001 (with the chiclet keyboard) which I still have in my garage, I could not afford the Altair's and Apple's. I used to go down to a local "Computers To Go" store and play Star Trek on their demo Altair's on Saturday's, if they weren't too busy. Thought it was the coolest game ever.)

Geez, I had forgotten all about Prodigy! I was a prodigy subscriber, too. I honestly don't remember much about it, but do vaguely recall them doing something to drive me away. But I could say that about a lot of companies! <ha ha> Idiocy in business knows no bounds. The pointy hair bosses rule.

Ah, the good ol' days.

 

I have the same problem with 179.28. I went back to the old driver.

 

Then you must remember the hot debates about which was the better design, the 8080 or the 6502. I'm a software guy, not an engineer, but I like the tech and used to tinker a bit. Of course, very little that I built ever worked.

Being a PET owner, I was in the 6502 camp, of course. Just out of loyalty as I really knew only what I read and truly understood nothing. Intel did not do so badly in later years, I hear.

 

I can, I've played them both on different drivers, and no overheating. Grtz

 

Cheers maarten08. Looks like "The Beast" is going back to HP. I have less than 2 months left of my 1 year warranty.

CJ

 

I haven't used RIVA in a long time. But from what I recall, doubt it wouldn't mess with anything unless you want it to. As for a key combo, that wouldn't either.

Are you using an external monitor? Dual screen mode will raise the temp on the GPU. Check you Nvidia control panel and make sure it's set to single screen mode.

 

Yes, that battle went on for several years, 68000, 68020, etc. However I no longer designed microprocessors in the later years of that battle. I was then designing graphic engines. This was before powerful graphic chips existed, so you had to roll your own using TTL, PLD's and then DSP's. Very challenging, but very rewarding.

I built my first PC from scratch, scavenging parts where ever I could find them. Used the IBM BIOS, which I had to modify. No hard drives, waaaaaay too much $$$. Used dual floppy's.

 

I've read most of your posts and you have some valid concerns, but for what it's worth, I have never heard of a GPU reach warning level temps without one of the following things wrong:

- Non-operational cooling, i.e. fan not turning, cooling fins clogged up with dust turds, etc. You say the fan was running and stepped up...are you sure it was the GPU fan? And the 'extra' fan you had in back, is blowing in or sucking away? Blowing in could be counter-productive...I'm at work and can't remember the air flow, in or out, but I think the fan blows out the back. At any rate, have you taken some can-air and sprayed all the vents?

- Over-clocking, but looking at your screenie of ATI tool, this isn't an issue

- Anytime I have ever seen a video card go fubar, it just hasn't caused a heat issue. BSOD's, artifacts, stuttering, complete GPU failure, etc.

- HP can say it is a driver issue, but that is complete BS. Some drivers are better than others, and better for certain apps/games than others, but don't let them play that card.

I would hesitate to send it in. If you have any mechanical skills at all, if the the canned-air doesn't work, I would suggest tearing it apart and seeing if there is airflow problems you can't see. The manual is pretty detailed and easy to follow. Dirt can accumulate in funny places. The reason I say I would hesitate is the lack of parts support since the Dragon has been discontinued.

Is there anyway you can verify which fans are running and at what speed? I used a program before that would do this, but it was only for Dell lappies. Don't know if one exists for the Dragon or other notebooks.

Good luck with whatever you choose.

 

I think I may be being paranoid haha. I installed NVIDIAS and it says I had 65 c degrees on the cores..that's not too bad right? It felt hot, but should I be looking at Celsius or Fahrenheit? Fahrenheit was 100 something. I restared again after a power drain and it seems to be back to being more cool..but the annoying thing is now whenever I restart I have to re do the mouse settings for synaptics to do Pointer precision and pointer speed..it used to do this when I installed Logitechs software after several restarts..I uninstalled, deleted registry reinstalled and it worked fine together..now its doing it again. Any idea on how to fix that so I don't have to manually keep checking the box for enhanced pointer precision and set pointer speed to 4 from the left? I do have logitechs mouse software TouchPoint or something installed and use the mouse from time to time.